At some point in everybody’s life they have to stand up for what they believe in. Whether it’s supporting their political views or fighting to be treated equally as the people they work with, standing up for what’s right is a part of everyone’s life. Based on a true story, Hidden Figures shows the struggles of three African-American women as they fight to be treated as equals in their jobs and community.

Hidden Figures, taking place during the 60’s in Virginia, had many segregated areas at the time. Katherine Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson, Dorothy Vaughn played by Octavia Johnson, and Mary Jackson played by Janelle Monáe, are engineers at NASA until Johnson and Jackson get reassigned to work more directly on the launch of John Glenn into orbit around the earth.

Henson plays Johnson, and does an excellent job portraying Johnson’s feelings of frustration, when she is denied access to important information she needs, and happiness, when she’s with the people she loves, throughout the movie. Jackson’s struggles were also excellently portrayed by Monáe, and Vaughn was played by academy award winner Johnson.

Jackson is asked to go into the engineering program at NASA but can’t because she hasn’t taken all of the required courses. When she goes to apply to take the needed classes, she gets stopped because the school is white only. Jackson fights to be able to attend those classes so she can become an engineer, while Johnson’s new assignment is checking the math for the rocket launches.

In this new position, Johnson faces numerous obstacles, including having to run half a mile just to use the one colored women’s bathroom on campus and not being able to get the information she needs because of her skin color and gender. Through fighting to be treated as equals, these women leave a big impact on eradicating segregation in their jobs and in their community all while working on one of the biggest moments in space travel for the United States.

Perseverance acts as a large theme in this movie. All of the characters go through many challenges of segregation of their race and gender within their jobs and community and keep trying even when it would be easier to give up. It also shows the importance of family and friends in parts with scenes that demonstrate the happiness and support they give the characters. Hidden Figures inspired me to fight for what I believe in and it will inspire audiences everywhere too.

Overall the screenplay in this movie was great. All of the actors and actresses portrayed their characters very well. The way they played their characters drew the audience in and was very realistic. It made it seem like you were in the movie with them. Along with this, the script sounds natural and demonstrates the characters feelings well too. The way the characters keep persevering throughout is inspirational and adds to the wow factor of the movie. Hidden Figures is nominated to win an Academy Award this year. Johnson is also nominated for another Academy Award for her role in this movie, which shows how well she did portraying her character.

This movie is rated PG because of some language and news footage of civil rights violence. I recommend this movie to mature teens and adults because of the mature content in the movie, such as scenes of civil rights violence and the presence of strong segregation. I do not recommend bringing young children to this movie because they won’t understand the ideas presented and may be bored. Overall, this is a great movie and I highly recommend it to mature teens and adults that are looking for an inspirational movie to watch.